A difficulty with motor homes is a shortage of well located, forwardly facing seats in which passengers may ride safely when a motor home is on the highway. Commonly, a motor home has a dinette unit at one side in which two settees face each other with a table between, and has a long settee extending entirely across the rear. The rearwardly facing settee of the dinette unit is usually fairly close to the front of the vehicle, but is not a desirable passenger seat when the vehicle is on the highway, partly because most people prefer not to ride backward, and also because a rearwardly facing seat is dangerous in case of accident unless it has a high head rest to minimize the possibility of neck injury in case of a sudden stop or forward end collision. Both settees of the dinette unit are hazardous when the vehicle is on the highway because of the table between which can cause severe injury to a rearwardly facing passenger in the case of a rear end collision or to a forwardly facing passenger in the case of a front end collision or a sudden stop. The settee at the rear of the vehicle is a hazardous place to ride unless it is supplied with seat belts, and in addition it is behind the rear axle where the weight of passengers badly disturbs the balance of the vehicle and makes for bad handling.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,800,337 discloses linkage mounted convertible settees for recreational vehicles which may be used either in the dinette unit or as the rear settee of a motor home or other recreational vehicle, but the structure there disclosed does not meet the problem of providing seats which are suitable for passenger use when the vehicle is on the highway.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,514,798 and 2,738,829 disclose structures which are defined as "Reversible or Berthable Seat". The structure and mode of operation of the seats of both patents is totally different from that of the present apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,844,608 discloses a "Mobile Home Lounge" in which two facing seats may be converted to form a bed, and in which one of the two seats has a reversible back rest; but again the structure and mode of operation are totally different from that of the present invention.